One of the most active food industry and technology clusters in Lithuania “Smart Food” together with colleagues from the Latvian “Food Products Quality Cluster” has started to create a joint alliance in the Baltic countries. They are preparing to participate in various international programs that would pave the way for collaboration with other European clusters and science.

The coordinator of the “Smart Food” cluster and the executive director of the Lithuanian Food Exporters Association (LitMEA) Giedrius Bagušinskas says that he and colleagues from the “Food Products Quality Cluster” agreed on joint actions representing the food industry of the three Baltic countries and participating in the development of innovation. He states: “There is no such cluster in Estonia yet, thus we represent the whole region with Latvia. The aim is to share our experience and to participate in funded innovation projects and diverse programs, many of which start in 2017”.

According to G. Bagušinskas, collaboration that started this year in June has involved the Lithuanian Food Exporters Association (LitMEA) and food companies that are the members of the cluster in many exciting international events. Lithuanian and Latvian entrepreneurs participated in specialized technology and innovation events in Riga and Warsaw. Participation in the events was supported by the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology. Exchange of experience and contact establishment with colleagues from Scandinavian and other countries are essential to cluster members that seek to boost competitiveness in external markets.

Innovation is the Future

The coordinator of the Latvian “Food Products Quality Cluster” Armands Lejas-Krumiš, who has a sustainable vision of development, claims that while representing almost two thirds of the country’s food companies they strive to involve their members in innovative activities. According to him, participation in international programs and science projects will increase opportunities of the whole Latvian food industry to create modern production that is based on intelligent technology and most recent science experiments. G. Bagušinskas confirms: “We want to create innovative and functional products, and improve our operation, thus we exchange our experience and collaborate”.

There is also cluster collaboration between companies that do not consider each other a direct competitor in overseas markets but believe in mutual trust and cooperation.